Following Edge

The "reunion" Eugene Weblogger Get-together was a comfortable event with familiar faces. David, Ben, Alan (ajb), and myself. I was hoping to meet some new folks (including punkindunkin, whose photo weblog I've been following for a while), but it was still great to chat with the folks I already know.

Alan suggested we might meet at "My Coffee" on West 11st Ave next time. They have the advantages of good coffee, free Wi-Fi and ample parking, but they're not so centrally located. What does anyone think?

We survived our visit to the coast. The weather was great and the visit with my mother-in-law was as wonderful as ever.

Today, however, I had a surprise when I picked up Lauren from school. "I have something in my nose." "Do you need some cold medicine?" "No, I have a ball in my nose."

Sheesh. She had stuck a bead up her nose. It's pictured on the right, but that doesn't give much reference to size. It was small enough to get in there, but not small enough to easily come out. "How did you get a blue ball in your nose?" "I don't want to say."

It seems she was just entertaining herself during circle time, and none of the teachers noticed, and she was too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Happily, after considering whether a trip to the doctor or emergency room might be necessary, and after discussing why one should never stick things up one's nose, we visited Anne Marie at the office.

Anne Marie was able to extract the bead with only a small amount of pain and discomfort to Lauren. It's nice to have a healthcare professional in the family.

Meanwhile, I got to talk to David about his current quandary about having a child. David seems to have forgotten to say in his post that (in my opinion) "Catwoman" is leaving the door wide open to having him help directly with having a baby. He's not sure that it will work out because she may not be so much "into him", but I think almost offering to have a baby with you is a pretty good indication. In any case, I hope he gives it a try to see if it can work out over the coming months. I think he'd be a great father if he had a baby and it's certainly better (or more likely) than waiting for the 100% perfect woman and a relationship you feel 100% secure in. Plus, it would give him a chance to worry about extracting things from noses!

I've been very happy that since my last report of work frustrations, things have improved. The "pushing and cajoling" part of my project with Keith has now been taken over by the managers closer to the users. So, it now feels like we're all cooperating on moving the project to company-wide use, instead of feeling like I had to push a cantaloupe down people's throat. In fact, Keith and I were at the corporate office yesterday, and things seem to be really progressing. Not only has Keith completed work on 20 to 25 issues or feature requests since the beginning of last week, but the people who are supposed to be using it are actually using it. Brilliant.

But, of course there are frustrations elsewhere. If it wasn't frustrating, we wouldn't call it "work", would we?

The top of my "list" this week is Apple Computer. One issue is that our project is having trouble because the data we get from Apple is severely broken and they seem to never respond to our bug reports and requests for assistance. But, that's expected. The more frustrating issue has to do with their software.

I'm working right now on setting up an internal Jabber chat (instant messaging) server for our company. Ostensibly, we're setting this up to make it easier for our staff to find each other for online chat and to do it more securely. But, it also means that the "other shoe will drop" and, once we have our own chat server, access to outside chat services (AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, etc) will be cut off. I can totally understand this because many of our employees really abuse Internet chat and spend half their time chatting with people when they're (supposedly) working. But, no matter how much I can understand it, it won't be popular. But that's a different issue.

The gripe with Apple is that their built-in chat client, iChat, seems to have a built in way to look up people's chat address from an address book. Since we already have a networked address book, I figured I could add the chat addresses there and have iChat find them automatically. However, Apple has never documented how to do that, which is one mark against them. The bigger mark against them is that, once I went to the work of finding and reading LDAP schemas, hacking a custom directory server to figure out what iChat was doing, and poring over network dumps, I discovered that Apple probably didn't document it because it's broken. They ask the address book for "IMHandle" info, but publish "apple-imhandle" info (so it doesn't match) and (maybe due to that), no matter how you give the info to iChat in the address book, it can never use it. It seems that they wrote the software, determined that it was broken, then decided to simply not talk about it instead of fixing it. When you love Apple computers as much as I do, this kind of thing is a bit surprising and frustrating.

Anyhow, I should also note that both the improvement in the first work problem and the fact that Apple is on my good side due to a $53.20 stock price (525% profit for me!), my overall outlook is way ahead compared to a few weeks ago.

Now, I'm off to the Oregon Coast for the weekend. Hope everyone has a good one.

The Eugene Weblogger Get-together resumes next Wednesday, Sept 28th. After a three-month break and with the start of the new school year, there's likely to be plenty of chance for local webloggers and weblog fans to get together for the first time or hear about the regulars' summer adventures. I hope you can make it.

The Get-together is on Wednesday the 28th at 6:30pm at Track Town Pizza on Franklin Blvd (near the U of O). Come chat for an hour or two, enjoy some pizza and have a drink. Everyone is welcome.

Don't know what's going on in local blogs? There is really a lot happening in local Eugene-area weblogs and following local blogs is a cool way to keep connected to the community. Check out the Eugene Weblog List on followingedge.com to see more than 100 local weblogs (including 8 new additions):

http://followingedge.com/eugene-weblog-list/

Wondering what the Get-together is all about? Feel free to email me for more info. Or, what could be more authoritative than a couple of weblog links:

http://justblu.blogspot.com/2005/05/consider-it-done.html
http://followingedge.com/blog/2005/01/january-eugene-weblogger-meetup-recap/

Mark your calendar:

Eugene Weblogger Get-together
  Wednesday, September 28 at 6:30pm
  Track Town Pizza
  1809 Franklin Blvd (near campus)

Hope to see you Wednesday. Leave a comment here to let us know if you can make it!

Anne Marie ran to the end of her patience with the raccoons. Tired of worrying about missing chickens, or possibly missing chickens, or mangled pheasants, she indicated it was time to send them on a permanent vacation.

We rented a live trap for a week. We put a peanut butter sandwich and marshmallows in it. Evidently, raccoons have a sweet-tooth and really go for this stuff, but cats won't, which is important around our barn.

Within a couple of hours, we had our first catch... a opossum. Not what we were after, and not very cute or endearing, but we decided to take it for a ride, since we had it all boxed up.

When I told Lauren before dawn this morning that we'd caught an opossum, she said "I want to see the opossum. Wait, I'll get my flashlight". Not shy and retiring, is she? In fact, we drove out into the forest together and let the opossum go several mile away.

Now, the trap is out again. Hopefully, we'll defeat the real enemy this time.

I've had trouble getting motivated to do anything on my personal to-do list for over a week now. Not only have I not been writing here, but I still haven't done the planning for next week's Eugene Weblogger Get-together, nor several other things. It's as if my soul has been drained away... or maybe taken?

Last Monday, I finally got around to moving my PO Box from Veneta, to the more nearby post office in our own town, Elmira. Aside from the silly governmental requirements to see all sorts of identification and to have forms signed in 3 or more places, the process was pretty simple.

Numbers are very important to me, so I was thinking about what PO Box number I might like the best. Of course, I didn't make any suggestions about box assignments to the postal bureaucrat that handled my paperwork, since we can probably guess what good that would do.

Nonetheless, I wonder if my thoughts betrayed me to some powerful (and number-loving) force, since my assigned number is 666. Am I a crazy numerologist to draw a conclusion between this "lucky" box number and my sudden lack of soul? I hope not.

Maybe someone can send me some encouragement in finding my soul? If you think you can, write to me at:

Michael Moore
PO Box 666
Elmira, OR 97437-0666

If ye did nay know, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yaaarrrrr, with a chest full of booty! Make sure t' greet yer shipmates and maties with a hearty "Avast!" or "Shiver m' timbers!".

You'll see that everythin' aroun' here changed t' pirate talk fer th' day. Give me a comment and see how well ye talk like a pirate!

My mind has settled into a rut this week. I have plenty to write about as I'm making steady progress at work, Lauren has been home sick for a couple of days, the response to Katrina continues to be slow while few are thinking about where much of the National Guard are (as opposed to where a "national" guard be), and gas prices continue to fund outrageously huge oil company profits.

Despite all that fresh material, I just don't feel like sharing or socializing. Along those lines, I haven't given any effort to planning the Sept 28th Eugene Weblogger Get-together. You thought you remember it being the 21st? You must have been mistaken. Hopefully, I'll have some energy for that soon.

Maybe it's all about social overload, which isn't too hard for me. We went to parties on September 5th, 7th and 10th, plus a party the week prior, and we just dodged a social get-together this evening. That's enough for 3 months, so it may be no mystery why I'm lying low this week.

Talk to you later.

Despite our relatively mild climate here, I've mostly forgotten, by this time of the year, that things will be much different across the next six months. So, here are some notes to remind myself in March what it's like in September:

• We visited Alsea Falls this last week. It's a beautiful place, but we didn't stay too long, since it was getting hotter and we were ready for some lunch. Lauren enjoyed walking the trails and journeying out onto the rocks next to the falls.
• It rained today for a few minutes. I can't remember the last time it rained. Maybe a few minutes last Monday? It seems like the Summer has been much drier and hotter than previous years.
• I spent an hour loading and moving composted horse-poo, but had to stop because the tractor was getting mired down in the dusty ground as well as the mucky compost. I hope the rain helps firm up the dusty part. I remember that I won't be able to use the tractor much later in the year because of rain and mud, but you couldn't tell from the way things look now.
• I can't remember what the pellet stove sounds like. I cleaned it out this week, knowing intellectually that it runs constantly for much of the year, but I can't really remember it running, since it's been sitting silent since May (or was it March?).
• I closed the skylight at the top of the dome this week and have been closing up the windows at night. We haven't had to worry about closing the windows since last month when the heat was so bad that we had to keep the cool night air closed up in the house.
• We've stopped using the air conditioner in our room. Soon I'll have to take it out to the barn and close up the bedroom window. For the $110 we spent on it 4 years ago, it has certainly repaid itself in comfort during the summers.
• I really miss Anne Marie's time and attention. I'm happy that she's feeling less anxious in the last week about her clinical schoolwork, but it's been hard for me to adjust to the long hours she needs to put in for school. The testosterone injections don't help. Of course, it's very important, and things will be much different after June, but it's hard to imagine how we'll feel about it over 9 more months.
• I've had to develop a routine to get Lauren into and back from school, which started this week. Lauren has had no trouble getting back into "school mode", but it'll take me a short while to develop a habit of all the little chores that have to be done as we rush off to school early in the morning.

I hope to revisit this list in March so I can remember how things change during the year.

Blogging leads to some curious connections. Some are pleasant, like reading a local blog from a blogger who shares both a love of laundry and relief at the start of the school year.

Other connections are more curious than pleasant, like this recent email:

Hello,
Mr,Moore,
Is This the Documentary Filmaker,
Michael Moore,This From the Grandson
Of George R.Tweed,of No man is an
Island,Who has Done work in Hollywood,
and Washington,And met George Bush Sr.
On These Websites,If Posssible to
Correspond,as Myself,As to Topic's,
In  Response...
                                 EMail
                                 Brian Tweed

I was able to find No Man is an Island on Amazon.com (including an all-uppercase review by Brian Tweed). It didn't give me much more interest in dealing with Mr. Tweed. I simply responded "Uh... no.", but Anne Marie pointed out my response should have had at least one comma to match his style. I wasn't sure what his style was. I was even wondering is he was going for some form of poetry.

Just a warning. Up to this point, you could count on seeing me wearing jeans and a t-shirt, except the days when I visit the corporate office and wear slacks and a button-up shirt (business casual, which replaced slacks, shirt and a tie when the current management team took over). The range and flair of my wardrobe has been very minimal. Recently, I noticed that even Keith (who has at least as much geek-cred as I do) was venturing beyond the programmer uniform.

Today, I spent almost an hour shopping here and there for new casual clothes. This hour represents more that two years in clothes shopping time for me. I bought 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, and a sweater, which (if you exclude computer-vendor-freebie t-shirts) nearly doubles my non-corporate-office wardrobe.

Thought I should tell you so that you will know NOT to comment on how my Halloween costume is coming together and NOT to ask who I'm going as.

Today, September 4th, is a special day in our household: MHGOD Day.

We have a cat, Meester Hobbes, who is a real neurotic mess. He hides from everyone except Anne Marie, runs whenever I get near him, and has an unnatural attachment to Anne Marie, including sitting on her chest, kneading her breasts while sucking on her shirt. When I try to do that, Anne Marie tells me to get lost. Hmmm... now that I think about it, maybe that explains a little of my animosity towards Meester Hobbes.

Since Meester Hobbes is such a neurotic mess and because "we" love him so much, he is completely an indoor cat, with little exception. One exception was when he, last year, rolled off the window sill, through the screen and onto the ground outside. (Did I mention that he has been so fat that he can't fit on a window sill?) Happily, his loud cries let Anne Marie find him huddled on the ground underneath the screen before the barn cats got around to investigate. The other exception when he goes out is MHGOD Day (or "Meester Hobbes Goes Out Day", despite the redundancy of "Day").

On this special day, I gather up (or hunt down) Meester Hobbes, put him in a cat carrier, and take him out for a ride. The last 4 years, the ride has been to the City of Eugene Spay and Neuter Clinic for his shots. Leaving the house is really not Meester Hobbes' favorite thing, so I take on the duty, because I can better endure his discomfort. (Or maybe better appreciate his discomfort.)

Since MHGOD Day fell on a Sunday this year, it was actually observed yesterday. I spent over an hour searching every corner of the house for Meester Hobbes. He did a great job hiding, but I was patient and eventually heard him running for a new hiding spot and got him to participate. We then drove to the clinic and enjoyed our annual car ride talking blues sing-a-long (19 second audio) during the drive. The vet said he's looking good and has lost half a pound since MHGOD Day 2004. We then stopped for a fish sandwich on the way home, and through Meeter Hobbes was too nervous to enjoy his portion, I enjoyed mine.

Now that the holiday has passed for this year, I'm a bit worried about next year. His distemper shot isn't due until MHGOD Day 2007 and his rabies shot isn't due again until MHGOD Day 2008. So it would appear he has no need to go to the clinic next year, but it seems like a shame not to celebrate the 5th Annual MHGOD Day. Perhaps me and Meester Hobbes can enjoy lunch in the park or take a sauna next September 4th. Let me know if you have any great ideas.